


The Blue Haired Job

by afrocurl



Category: Leverage
Genre: Families of Choice, Geek Love, Geeks, Gen, Pop Culture, Post-Canon, Slice of Life, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7381009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were rules in Hardison's life that made as normal as possible. But when a rule was violated, he always knew it was important to take notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blue Haired Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Framlingem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Framlingem/gifts).



Nana’s got a habit of interrupting things that she shouldn’t, especially now that it’s just Alec with Parker and Eliot.

-

Alec left very specific orders, but there were silly ones that she never understood. They were always well placed in her house, in pride of place, where she could never forget her dear _grandson_ ’s words before he left for wherever he was. Doing whatever he did. She knew better than to ask, and he knew better than to answer if she asked.

> 1\. Always record _Doctor Who_.

_What sort of show was that? I remembered him watching it on PBS as a kid, but I don’t know anything else._

> 2\. Only email in case of emergency.

_Why couldn’t I just want to talk to my grandson? What was he always doing? He had a mysterious way about him, and had since he first had that clunky PC clone as a seven-year-old (I didn’t know how he got it, and I don’t want to know), but I have the feeling that it was never the _right_ thing that he should be doing._

> 3\. Don’t call me. I’ll call you. 

_Why can’t I hear sweet Alec’s voice when I’m feeling down? Why only when he has time?_

> 4\. _Game of Thrones_. Record it, but never watch.

_That one I’m still not sure about. I follow along with the time-travelling alien, but I should draw a line at all the sex and violence I’ve heard about._

Normally, the list and her neat text commentary about the rules sat on her refrigerator and stared at her, but today she was staring at the list next to her computer because the South Side was just not the same since everyone else was on edge that they would be next to lose their homes. 

Beatrice from down the street had made a stink at Church on Sunday, saying something about the bank taking away her apartment for a reason that made no sense to anyone in the congregation. At least five other members live in that apartment building, Nana knew, but they had all remained quiet about what was going on. Either those other families were too ashamed of being evicted, or they were not in the same position and something else nefarious was going on. She had no faith in the banks after all those bad loans she had heard about on the news. Maybe Alec was right to be as paranoid as he was?

Maybe it was time she reached out to Alec. This sounded like an emergency. He was good with these sort of emergencies. Or so she thought, since Alec rarely ever talked about what he did these days.

-

_Alec dear, I need you to come visit me. I think there’s a problem, and it sounds like you could help._

The message was clear as a bell, and right now there was nothing else that Hardison wanted to do than to visit Nana in Chicago. There were too many problems with things around the Dark Net related to the Black Book, but Nana was the only person (not including Parker and Eliot) that could force Hardison to leave a job.

“We gotta go guys,” he said after he fully understood what was going on; he had called her back found out what was going on and done some basic work that raised his ire at banks and made him think that they could use a little white knighting. Comms were at least active this week as they were conning another bank exec out of money that he gained at the expense of working class families in Ohio. Lucille III was at least cool today, despite the oppressive heat and humidity.

“Where to this time?” Eliot’s voice was dry, as if he was once again tired of Hardison always finding new jobs to send them on, sending them off to bumblefuck Anytown USA, but Eliot would cave to Nana’s words Hardison knew. Of course Eliot was saying all of this while he was probably punching three guys in the face, or nuts. There was something behind Eliot’s voice that Hardison couldn’t quite place. 

“Nana’s friend had some trouble and it might be something we can fix. Actually, I know we can fix it if we just get there.” He was trying to be calm about this, but her email was so sparse that he had a jouska when he finally called to find out exactly what was wrong. He had learned more than enough to tell him that the banks were trying to evict tenants, but he had yet to put together the why; the South Side was not the place to build new developments or anything else that would require buying all the property.

“Nana. Like going to Chicago to see Nana?” Parker asked. She had that false chirp in her voice from when she was grifting and playing a part. It only annoyed him a little that she put it on as often as she did, but it was part of their lives now. Cons with only three were infinitely more difficult and required all of their personas - if not three of them with prosthetics and make-up to fool more people - and so it was a new normal. Taxing was an understatement for what he felt like as they had started to worm money away from those who wanted to hurt the downtrodden. 

“Yes, Chicago to see Nana. And her friend,” Hardison said. He was watching the video footage to make sure that neither of them were raising too much attention as they talk into thin air. The room was paying neither of them any attention. Thank fuck.

“And the case is real?” Eliot’s tone was less annoyed now, but not too curious. Good signs. Too bad Eliot was meant to be watching their mark before he pulled a lift of a keycard rather than talking about Nana.

“Should wouldn’t email unless it was an emergency. I told her the rules.”

“But does it have to be now? We’re sort of busy.” Now Eliot’s voice was back to annoyed. Fuck. 

“Yes, it has to be now. She doesn’t email until it’s important. I called to confirm that this isn’t just another random request to see my precious face.” Hardison keeps his voice as tight as he could to not show any ire when they did need to focus on the con they were knee deep in.

“We can always cover this little issue from Chicago. We’re almost done with this,” Parker said. “I’m making the call and we’re leaving tomorrow. That means we’ve got to finish this before then.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Hardison chirped just to aggravate Eliot’s already poor mood.

“Yes, ma’am,” Eliot parroted back.

Hardison had a quick chuckle. There was still work on this job to be done before he could even worry about Nana.

-

Just before bed, she always checked her email. Alec would be proud that she was spending so much time making sure she knew what was going on with everyone outside of Chicago, even if it was only in clipped messages.

_Nana,_

_We’ll be there tomorrow morning to talk about this situation. Be prepared._

_Yours,  
Alec_

So Alec was going to come and help after all.

She could rest easily knowing that now.

-

They tumbled into bed together in the small hours, the job finally done. Hardison half-missed that they were not due a long rest after this one, but the flight was for noon and they needed time to fix on which IDs to bring for the case beyond the ones that were already used for their flights.

It was a hassle, and his mind was still thinking of everything when Parker finally whispered, “It’ll keep until tomorrow. Relax.”

Hardison did.

-

Alec had send their itineraries, but little else. She worried if she needed to have a car for him, but she stopped herself. He was a grown man.

It did not stop her from worrying all morning once she had checked that they flights landed.

-

Hardison had Lucille shipped from Ohio to Chicago because there were some indignities he would never suffer again - and the biggest was a car ride with Parker and Eliot for longer than two hours - but it meant that they were waiting for it to arrive on a cross-country truck. Hardison had no faith in giving that moving company Nana’s address so they were waiting in front of some poor Used Car showroom.

Thankfully now Parker was less irritable about wide gaps in their time. She mellowed with responsibility, and it was good for them all. Less of that twenty pounds of crazy in the five pound bag. 

Eliot just glowered, eager to get this job over and done with if Hardison had to guess.

“She’ll love you, man,” he said rather than address Eliot’s probable issue.

“Why should I be worried about Nana?”

“Because she’s Nana,” Parker added, “and if she doesn’t like us, she might--”

“Might what?” Eliot asked.

“I don’t know, keep him locked in the basement,” was Parker’s reply. Why she hit on that idea, Hardison knew better than to ask.

“Nana would never do that after everything I’ve put her through.”

“You sure?” she asked, voice just a little nervous.

“Absolutely.”

“Good.” She looked away from the two of them just as the big truck arrive with Lucille on its back.

-

Far closer to dinner than she wanted - at 2:45 PM - there was a knock on her door. Her apple cobbler had been cooling for hours, but that was just a minor irritation to seeing Alec again.

“Alec?” she asked to the other side of the door.

“Yes, Nana. And my friends,” he said through the door, but there were other muffled sounds around it.

Turning the deadbolt, she opened the door and saw Alec, a man, and a woman swatting at each other.

“Nana, this is Parker and Eliot. Don’t mind us. Parker won a bet.” 

“I will mind poor behavior in my home, Alec, and you know it.”

“Yes, Nana,” he said before giving looks to both of his friends to stop them from being rude.

“Nana, can I watch some of the stuff on the DVR?” Parker asked.

“Of course dear, I need to explain a bit more to Alec about this situation.”

“Eliot, come on,” Parker said, and soon enough the two of them were walking around the house as if it were theirs.

“They’ll settle in once they start on Who or Game of Thrones. Now what can we do?”

Alec walked with her into the kitchen and was ready to lay out what more she knew and what she thought might be going on after she did a little investigating of her own.

-

At least Parker and Eliot were sitting through this conversation while watching nerd porn. Hardison was just sad he was missing out, but Nana’s story had him curious.

“That sounds fishy, but let me do some more research and then we’ll figure out how best we can help Beatrice. She sounds like a wonderful woman who shouldn’t have the bank trying to take away her major investment.”

“They’ll get to work?” Nana asked, the TV loud from the living room. It sounded like Parker and Eliot were not going to be much help working on this case as they were now.

“As soon as I tell them what you’ve told me and do more of my work, yes. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think there was something going on.”

“But we’re not interrupting them?”

“We compartmentalize like the best. If not, we’d never get anything done.”

Nana nodded and slowly rose from her seat. “Then I’ll leave you to this.”

-

Three hours after she had given Alec the details, he walked into the kitchen where she was puttering around with something for dinner.

“You can let Eliot cook if you want. He’s good. Great even. That way you can walk me over to Beatrice’s and I can get some more details from her that you might not know.” 

“So you’re taking the job?” She should have known that he did the moment he emailed back to say that they would visit, but until now she had been uneasy.

Alec simply nodded as if that was all the answer he needed to give.

The vegetables were staring at her, but it seemed like Alec knew his mind and so she left them. “Let Eliot know the table is his.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **redacted** for the beta and help.


End file.
